


Avatar: The Legacy of Fire

by candlebreak



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang (Avatar) Is Not The Avatar, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avatar Zuko (Avatar), Azula (Avatar) Redemption, But no one knows it, Child Soldiers, Childhood Trauma, Fire Nation Royal Family, Gen, Good luck there buddy, Healing, Hijinks & Shenanigans, I hope he finds himself, It's Zuko there has to be angst, Mistaken Identity, Ozai (Avatar)'s A+ Parenting, POV Alternating, Recovery, Spirit World, Spirits, War, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko is, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, but he's not great at introspection so..., especially Zuko, he's looking all over for himself, maybe Iroh can help?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28441422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candlebreak/pseuds/candlebreak
Summary: Fire. Air. Water. Earth.The sages used to tell stories of the old days: a time of terror when the tyrant Avatar suppressed all people and divided the land between the Fire Nation, Air Nomads, Water Tribes, and Earth Kingdom. But everything changed when Sozin’s comet allowed the Fire Nation to fight back. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, stood in the way of a prosperous and united world. But just when we almost managed to defeat him, he vanished.A hundred years have passed, but the world cannot truly be united until the Avatar is found. Three years ago, my father entrusted me with a sacred task: to find and capture the Avatar, and thereby redeem a great shame and failure of the Fire Nation. And although many believe this is an impossible task, I still have hope. I still believe that, somehow, I will find the Avatar and restore honor to the Fire Nation and to myself.***AU where the Avatar Spirit left Aang in the iceberg and was eventually reborn in everybody’s favorite grumpy fire prince.
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Jee & Zuko (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Ozai & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko, Ursa & Zuko (Avatar), Zhao & Zuko (Avatar), Zuko & Zuko's Crew (Avatar)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 63





	Avatar: The Legacy of Fire

**Author's Note:**

> This was an idea that gripped me and refused to let go. A lot of the dialogue and plot points (especially in the beginning) are ripped directly from canon. Because wow, it takes these children a long time to figure out that something is up. But once it gets full-on AU, boy howdy will it be full-on AU.
> 
> Trigger warnings/content notices will be included at the beginning of each chapter. Please let me know if you think something should be flagged, and I will do it! 
> 
> Updates will _not_ be regular.

* * *

* * *

_Fire. Air. Water. Earth._

_The sages used to tell stories of the old days: a time of terror when the tyrant Avatar suppressed all people and divided the land between the Fire Nation, Air Nomads, Water Tribes, and Earth Kingdom. But everything changed when Sozin’s comet allowed the Fire Nation to fight back. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, stood in the way of a prosperous and united world. But just when we almost managed to defeat him, he vanished._

_A hundred years have passed, but the world cannot truly be united until the Avatar is found. Three years ago, my father entrusted me with a sacred task: to find and capture the Avatar, and thereby redeem a great shame and failure of the Fire Nation. And although many believe this is an impossible task, I still have hope. I still believe that, somehow, I will find the Avatar and restore honor to the Fire Nation and to myself._

* * *

* * *

A beam of light cut through the air.

Zuko froze, his breath fogging in front of him. _Was this—could it be…?_ “Finally!”

He spun around on one armoured heel to bring Uncle Iroh into his discovery. “Uncle, do you realize what this means?” His stomach twisted with nauseous joy.

Uncle Iroh did not withdraw his attention from his Pai Sho set, remaining calm and cross-legged on the metal deck. “I won't get to finish my game?”

Zuko pushed down a stab of hurt. Uncle was mocking him. He didn’t even _look_. Even he didn’t believe in Zuko’s ability to complete a simple task. Zuko turned back towards the light, unwilling to let his uncle see any weakness betrayed by his mutilated face. Not that there was any weakness to find.

“It means my search is about to come to an end.” He spoke softly, but tried to imbue the statement with the solemnity it deserved. If Uncle no longer cared to uphold the dignity of the Fire Nation, then it fell to Zuko to maintain the duties and decorum of royalty. Even in exile, even in the savage and frozen wasteland where they found themselves, propriety must be preserved. They were _princes_ of the Fire Nation; there was no room in their lives for indulgence or weakness. No room for anything less than perfection.

Azula’s voice, still mocking even in his mind.

_Breathe. She’s not here._

Although…the Azula who lived in Zuko’s head wasn’t _wrong_.

Perfection was be the bare _minimum_ expected of a hunt for the Avatar, the most powerful bender in all the world.

But Uncle disregarded all of that. Instead of doing anything befitting of his rank, Iroh just sighed and moved around some stupid tiles.

Zuko bit down a wave of anger. _How could he not care?_

Iroh wasn’t abandoning Zuko to his quest alone, was he? This was everything on the line! The future of the Fire Nation, redemption from the Fire Lord!

The chance to go home.

Maybe Uncle wasn’t taking him seriously because he hadn’t seen the light, the unnatural way it shot straight up in the air, higher than the eye could see and straighter than a steel ruler. It was downright eerie. Wrong. He could feel that wrongness in his chest, a knot nestled deep into his diaphragm that vibrated at a strange resonancy with the light. If it wasn’t the Avatar, it was a spirit, and a powerful one at that.

_Come on, Uncle. Look._

No such luck. Typical. He’d have to do it himself. “That light came from an incredibly powerful source!” He gestured with his whole body so there was no way Uncle could avoid it. “It has to be him!”

The humming in his breast faded. Without looking, he knew the light was gone, even though the ever-bright polar sky could barely register the fading echo of light, too drowned out by the glaring fury of white snow under a constant summer sun.

But Uncle dismissed him again. “Or it's just the celestial lights. We've been down this road before, Prince Zuko.”

 _But this time it’s different!_ Zuko wanted to scream. Three years of fruitless search—and yes, there had been plenty of false leads—and _still_ he was not trusted any more than a wayward child. He was _crown prince_! He was entrusted with the most difficult and sacred of all tasks! He was due some measure of respect, even from the fire sages themselves. Even from his uncle.

But he couldn’t say any of that without appearing to be the foolish spoiled child everyone believed him to be.

 _Breathe_.

“Please, sit. Why don't you enjoy a cup of calming Jasmine tea?”

Alright, that’s _it_. “I don't need any calming tea!” He whirled to face his uncle. “I _need_ to capture the Avatar!”

 _You are in charge here, not him_. _Breathe_. “Helmsman,” he called, the proper address from commanding officer to inferior, “head a course for the light.”

He stared silently in the direction where the light once was, unwilling to let this lead slip through his grasp. A gust of wind washed over them, and Zuko shivered beneath his armour.

He knew, in his spirit, in his bones, in his breath and his blood: this was it, a moment that would echo through all history. The Avatar had returned.

* * *

* * *

Aang blinked, vision fuzzy. Where _was_ he? Everything was so bright.

This wasn’t the temple.

Slowly, a face resolved in front of him, and Aang gasped. Dark skin, concerned blue eyes, thick hair looped in blue wrappings. She was beautiful. She felt like home. _Safe._

She was Water Tribe.

Aang’s heart stuttered, memory flooding back. Gyatso, and the Elders, and a desperate flight south. The storm, and Appa sinking down, and the knowledge that they wouldn’t make it after all.

But they had. He was here. He was _safe_. He could keep being a kid. Right?

“I need to ask you something.” His voice came out weaker than he intended.

“What is it?” asked the girl. Her voice was silvery clear, like a ’s honey crystals.

“Please,” said Aang. “Come closer.” This was serious stuff, secret stuff, Avatars and impending wars and people who were no doubt searching for him.

“What is it?” she asked, leaning in.

And…she just looked so _bright_ , so curious and open and _beautiful_ , and Aang _couldn’t_. He couldn’t drag her down into his mess. But he didn’t have to, did he? That was the whole point of coming here. Getting to be a kid, at least until he was sixteen. And, hey, she was a kid too! Maybe they could be friends. Yeah. That would be good. That would be really good. Aang hadn’t really had any friends his age since they told him he was the Avatar

So instead of asking her about serious grown-up stuff, he grinned. “Will you go penguin sledding with me?” Penguin sledding was a _great_ way to make friends.

The girl blinked. “Uh, sure. I-I guess.”

Awesome! Aang pushed himself up with an easy lift of airbending. He was a little sore, but things seemed okay. He rubbed at his head, where the soft spot of a soon-to-be bruise felt like he might have been jabbed with a rock. _Oh, well_. Bruises healed. And things were good. He’d made it to the Southern Water Tribe! He’d actually made it! He was free!

Of course, there didn’t seem to be many actual Southern Water Tribes _people_ around. Just the girl and a slightly older boy standing next to her. And ice. Lots of ice. “What’s going on here?”

“You tell us!” snapped the boy. “How did you get in the ice? And why aren’t you frozen?” He gave Aang a friendly poke in the side with his spear.

Aang lazily pushed the spear away. “I’m not sure.” Those were good questions, but there were more important ones right now. Like, where was Appa? The last thing he could remember was him and Appa sinking beneath the waves, icy-cold water all around them. _Aang_ had made it, but had something happened to…?

Like he’d been summoned by Aang’s thoughts, a familiar lowing groan filled the air. Appa!

Aang scrambled up the icy ridge behind him, and sure enough, there was Appa, curled up on the snow.

“Appa!” Aang threw himself down to float onto Appa’s head. “Are you all right?”

Appa didn’t get up, so Aang hung upside-down to check his eyes. “Wake up, buddy.” Appa moaned, and his eyes didn’t stay open when Aang peeled them back. That wasn’t too big of a deal, though. Appa wasn’t really a morning bison.

Aang leapt down and pushed up against Appa’s head. He wasn’t strong enough to left a many-ton bison, obviously, but he knew the tricks to get Appa awake. He had a ticklish spot beneath his chin, just… _there._

Appa licked Aang in retaliation, and Aang laughed. There was his buddy. “You’re okay!” He pressed himself into Appa’s nose in a joyful hug.

“What _is_ that thing?” The boy had followed them into the ice crater and was staring suspiciously at them both.

Whoops. He hadn’t introduced them yet. “This is Appa,” he explained. “My flying bison.”

The boy blinked. “Right. And this is Katara, my flying sister.” He gestured at the girl.

Aang frowned. Was Katara an airbender? But she looked like Water Tribe! Huh, maybe he should ask. That would be cool, if he could hang out with an airbender down here. Unless she’d tell the monks where he was. Aang did not want to go back to the temple. But she seemed cool, so—

The split-second warning of a tickle of air, and Aang was down on the ground, Appa’s sneeze-snot missing him by a hair.

The boy hadn’t been so lucky, and was now trying to rub it off on the snow while his sister tried not to laugh. Oopsy. Oh well. “Don’t worry,” he reassured the boy, “It’ll wash out.”

The boy continued to make disgusted noises and glare at him. Aang gave a mental shrug. He’d get over it, and then they could all be friends. “So,” he said, “do you guys live around here?” He didn’t _see_ any houses, but maybe they were hidden in the ice. There was this city in the Earth Kingdom that he’d visited with Gyatso, where the _whole city_ was underground! Maybe they did the same thing here, but with ice and snow! That would be super cool. Hehe, cool.

“Don’t answer that,” screeched the boy, prodding Aang once again with his pointy spear. And why would he do that? Aang didn’t know much about hunting—he was a vegetarian, and would _never_ willingly take the life of an animal—but the monks had taught that spear-fishing and seal-hunts were the way of the Southern Water Tribe, and that tradition was to be respected. But Aang wasn’t a fish or a seal. He was a _person_. Why would you point a spear at a person?

“Did you see that crazy bolt of light?!” The boy was still ranting at his sister. _Crazy bolt of light?_ That sounded cool. Aang was sad he missed it. Maybe it would come again. “He was probably trying to signal the Fire Navy!”

The _Fire Navy_? Why would _that_ be a problem? The Fire Navy patrolled the seas and kept people who couldn’t fly safe from pirates. They were good guys, like city guards, kind of. But on the sea.

The sister, Katara, rolled her eyes and pushed her brother’s spear down. “Oh yeah, I'm sure he's a spy for the Fire Navy. You can tell by that _eeevil_ look in his eye.” She shot a conspiratorial look at Aang, and he grinned back. He wasn’t really sure what was going on, but he liked them both. They seemed fun.

Katara turned to Aang. “The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka. You never told us your name.”

 _Oh shoot! Why was he so bad at introductions?_ “I’m Aa—” the beginnings of a sneeze interrupted him, but he tried to plow on. “Aa-a-a-Achoo!” The sneeze rocketed him upward, and he may have added a bit of a boost just to enjoy the thrill of soaring into the air at top speed.

He grinned and floated back down. Today was a good day. It was sunny, Appa was here, he didn’t have to deal with the fate of the world, and he was pretty sure he was about to make his two new best friends. He smiled and held out a hand. “I’m Aang.”


End file.
